ABOUT US

Located in the heart of the nation’s fourth largest city, South Texas College of Law Houston is a private, independent institution that has earned a reputation for providing students an exceptional, relevant, practical legal education that fully prepares them for a career in the profession.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES

FRED PARKS LAW LIBRARY

The Fred Parks Law Library offers students access to more than 90 law-related databases; a comprehensive range of government documents; special collections, including rare books, manuscripts, and archives; and legal research guides. These resources are all designed not only to support students in the classroom, but also to better prepare them for employment after graduation.

STUDENT SERVICES

South Texas College of Law Houston provides students with a full range of services and opportunities to enhance their learning experience. We offer nearly 40 special-interest student organizations, technology support, academic counseling, and assistance in pursuing employment, internships, and clerkships.

CAREER RESOURCES

South Texas College of Law Houston is committed to helping our students maximize their potential for a successful, rewarding career. We help students to locate opportunities in private practice, public interest, government, and business; provide career counseling and job search advice; offer assistance identifying and applying for clerkships and internships; and connect students with alumni and other potential employers.

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

More than 15,000 South Texas College of Law Houston alumni live and work across the U.S. and the globe. Every new graduate is automatically a member of the Alumni Association.
Our alumni have achieved success in private practice, the judiciary, as general counsels, and in government and public service. Additionally, we have built partnerships with friends of the law school who share our vision and seek to support our mission.

Law School News

South Texas College of Law Houston recently hosted the 32nd Annual Energy Law Institute, presented by the school’s Harry L. Reed Oil & Gas Law Institute, for nearly 100 of the state’s leading oil and gas attorneys and landmen.

STCL Houston President and Dean Michael F. Barry welcomed attendees to the two-day forum and shared the history of the Harry L. Reed Oil & Gas Law Institute. He underscored the importance of having a dynamic, academic, oil and gas law institution in the heart of Houston — the energy capital of the Western Hemisphere. He also highlighted the vital partnerships the Institute fosters between the city’s energy law firms, land companies, regulatory agencies, and law school.

Houston is home to more than 5,000 energy firms and the world’s largest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants. Since 1923, STCL Houston has grown with the city’s energy industry.

“The goal of the Harry L. Reed Oil & Gas Law Institute is to be the premier oil and gas law school — not only in Texas, and not only in the U.S., but in the world,” said Professor Christopher Kulander, Ph.D., director of the Institute. “South Texas College of Law Houston is unsurpassed in North America when it comes to its oil and gas law curriculum. STCL Houston students who focus on this area are fully equipped at graduation to enter the competitive energy industry and make immediate contributions to the field — whether working in-house with energy companies or for law firms with energy practices.”

STCL Houston offers ten energy-related law courses, ranging from Energy Finance Transactional Skills, to Domestic and International Petroleum Transactions, to Offshore Oil and Gas Development, and more. Students build on a strong foundation in corporate and business law, transactional drafting and negotiation skills, bankruptcy, dispute resolution skills, and an understanding of the regulatory environment.

Event attendees included members of the STCL Houston Energy Alumni Group — composed of approximately 300 oil and gas lawyers throughout the state and nation — and members of the school’s Oil and Gas Legal Society — South Texas’ largest student organization.

Through a wide-ranging regimen of courses, projects, symposia, and scholarship, the Harry L. Reed Oil & Gas Law Institute aims to ignite interest in oil and gas law, and provide one of the most diverse and international student bodies in the country with the practical knowledge and skills to contribute immediately to firms and companies upon graduation. The Institute focuses on developing applied petroleum-related transactional, title, and regulatory practice skills. Future areas of coverage will include international petroleum transactions and other sources of energy. The Institute seeks to be responsive to the practical needs of law firms and energy companies, and aims to give students the opportunity to acquire analytical and practice skills necessary to successfully begin careers in oil and gas law.